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One of the most traumatic experiences faced by the Muslims of the country during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency was the implementation of the mandatory policy of cremation for all bodies suspected to be infected with Covid-19. This cruel and inhumane act which caused outrage and trauma among Muslims, whose religious beliefs stipulated that the remains should be buried, was condemned locally and internationally as one deliberately targeting the Muslims.

The issue came up unexpectedly last week when President Ranil Wickremesinghe made a special statement in Parliament to express regret over the Government’s decision to enforce cremations for those who died during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A few weeks earlier Minister of Water Supply Jeevan Thondaman announced that he would get Cabinet approval based on certain findings of his Ministry to apologise for the decision of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency. However, there was no information with regard to this move by minister Thondaman until the president made his unexpected remarks in Parliament last week.

However, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) parliamentarian Mujibur Rahman took issue with President Ranil Wickremesinghe for allegedly attempting to justify the forced cremations.

In his statement to Parliament, President Wickremesinghe had stated that the previous Government had cremated bodies based on recommendations from a technical committee appointed by President Rajapaksa. In response, the SJB parliamentarian condemned the president’s remarks, asserting that forced cremations could not be justified on any grounds. He explained that there were two committees appointed during that period: A technical committee made up of certain political appointees and an expert committee which was appointed following requests made by the Muslim community.

Mujibur Rahman said that “The technical committee, comprised of political appointees appointed by the former President, who insisted that bodies must be cremated. However, the expert committee, headed by the Dean of the University of Colombo’s Medical Faculty, Prof Jennifer Perera, recommended against cremation, which was in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Government led by President Rajapaksa ignored the expert committee’s recommendations and continued with forced cremations taking cover under the technical committee’s advice.” The parliamentarian was arguing that it was a political decision, and that the entire Cabinet of Ministers had to take responsibility for the decision.

At that time the policy of forced cremations was justified by the Government on the grounds of public health, citing fears of virus transmission through groundwater. However, the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization stated that the burial of victims posed no danger to public health, and the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Sri Lanka at the time, and UN regional groups had all written to the Sri Lanka Government calling for the Covid-19 dead to be handled with dignity and their religious beliefs respected.

Various local and international health experts too maintained that there was no evidence to support the claim that burial posed a risk of the spread of the virus. The fact that the decision was made clearly targeting the Muslims was evident by the remark made by one of the members who advised the President that if Covid-19 victims’ bodies were buried they could be used as “biological weapons by certain groups” (meaning the Muslims).

Not surprisingly no action was taken against this official’s highly offensive remarks against a community.

In his remarks to Parliament last week, President Wickremesinghe acknowledged that as a result of the then Government’s decision there was a lot of pain, mainly felt by the Muslims, but also by Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, who would have like to bury their loved ones.

Wickremesinghe also promised new legislation that would enshrine the rights of individuals to choose between burial, cremation, or donating their bodies to medical institutions.

Joining the discussion in Parliament, Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa urged the Government to initiate an inquiry into those responsible for targeting the Muslim community through racist policies in Sri Lanka following the 2019 presidential election.

Premadasa went on to condemn the forcible cremations carried out by the Government during the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the most reprehensible acts by a Government, targeting a particular religious and ethnic community. “Even when the WHO said this move was wrong, a special committee in this country was established to target the Muslim and Islamic community in Sri Lanka,” he said.

The Opposition Leader urged the President to launch an inquiry into those responsible for implementing racist policies that violated the fundamental rights of the Muslim community. “It was a witch hunt against one community,” he said.

At the height of the controversy the Leader of the Opposition was one of the few political leaders who took up cudgels on behalf of the Muslim community and expressed solidarity with them in their quest for justice both in and outside Parliament. In fact the then Minister of Justice Ali Sabry repeatedly tried to shut the Opposition Leader up in Parliament by accusing him of trying “to politicize” the forcible cremations issue.

Premadasa also endorsed the need for the Government to introduce new laws while concurrently investigating the individuals or entities behind the racist actions initiated after the 2019 presidential election.

Adding insult to injury the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government attempted to send the bodies of Muslims for burials to the Maldives thus denying them the dignity of being buried in the land of their birth. This was only thwarted by opposition from some sections of the Maldvian polity.

The actions of the then Government with regard to forcible cremations resulted in the erosion of the goodwill that the international Muslim community had always had towards Sri Lanka. Finally it was the efforts of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan that resulted in the overturning of the Government’s cruel decision to implement the forced cremation policy.

But even when burial was allowed the Muslims were forced to face the ignominy of going all the way to a remote location in Ottamawady in the Eastern Province to bury their dead.

The heartburn caused to those who faced these difficulties at the most traumatic time of their life is not likely to be easily forgotten.

(javidyusuf@gmail.com)